Who is Keir Starmer? Son of a toolmaker who grew up to become a 'Sir'
What you need to know about the personal life of the man who wants to be the UK’s next prime minister
The son of a toolmaker and the first of his family to go to university, Sir Keir Starmer is the most working class Labour Party leader in a generation.
Yet when focus groups are asked what they think his favourite drink is, they guess that he’s partial to a gin and tonic rather than a pint down the local boozer. Many also assume his title is hereditary.
Here's what you need to know about the personal life of the man who wants to be the UK’s next prime minister.
His early life
Starmer was born in Southwark, south London, in 1962, as the second of four children. His parents were Labour Party members and named him after Keir Hardie, the party’s first leader in parliament.
The family moved out of the capital and he grew up in Hurst Green, a village just outside the small Surrey town of Oxted. He was active in youth politics from his teenage years but was also a skilled musician, taking music lessons alongside Norman Cook, who later became better known as a member of The Housemartins and the DJ Fatboy Slim.
Starmer played the flute, piano, violin and recorder and was a junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
His family
Starmer is married to Victoria, a former solicitor who later retrained in occupational health and now works for the NHS. The pair met through their work in the law in the early 2000s and married in Essex in 2007.
She was first seen accompanying her husband when the couple were filmed clapping for carers during the pandemic in 2020 outside their home in Camden. They have two children, a son and daughter, but both are kept out of the public eye.
Victoria's father was Jewish and originally came from Poland, while her mother converted when they got married. Starmer has said in a previous interview that "my wife in particular wants our children to know the faith of her family" and that they "observe some of the practices, for example Friday night prayers".
His parents
The Labour leader's father, Rodney Starmer, worked as a toolmaker in a factory, and his mother Josephine Starmer (née Baker), was a nurse.
His father worked 14-hour days but spent his time outside work caring for Josephine, who was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition Still’s disease. She required two hip and knee replacements twice in her lifetime and struggled with arthritic pain.
As a young man Starmer also helped care for his mother, which he has said led to him being more emotionally reserved. His sister, Katy, recalled: “He’s had to be a grown-up all his life. I’ve always been quite open about my feelings – Keir is good at most things, but not that.” Josephine Starmer died in 2015, and his father three years later.
His education
Starmer passed the 11-plus examination, and attended Reigate Grammar School from age 11. While he was at the school it became an independent fee-paying institution, but as an existing student he was exempt from fees, and his tuition in the sixth form was covered by a bursary.
After school he studied law at the University of Leeds, this first in his family to attend university, graduating with a first class degree in 1985. He undertook postgraduate law studied at the University of Oxford, where he served as editor of a radical magazine, Socialist Alternatives.
Why is he a Sir?
Starmer was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 2014 in recognition of his work in the legal profession, culminating in a five-year term as director of public prosecutions (DPP).
He first became a barrister in 1987 at the Middle Temple, later joining Doughty Street Chambers and was appointed a Queen’s counsel in 2002, aged just 39. In 2008 he was appointed head of the Crown Prosecution Service and DPP.
During his tenure he chose to prosecute three Labour MPs and a Conservative in the wake of the parliamentary expenses scandal, and was responsible for prosecuting former MP Chris Huhne and his ex-wife Vicky Pryce for perverting the course of justice after Pryce claimed responsibility for her former husband’s speeding offence.
